'The road to trophies always lies through Cardiff,' says Adam Keefe

Speaking ahead of the game he said: “We know that the road to trophies always leads through Cardiff and that is something that we always have in our minds when we play them.

“Not much has changed over the last few years, we know that we are in for a tough game against them and we need to play at our best to come away from this place with the points.”

And it was abundantly obvious at the end of the game that Keefe was delighted with having taken the points from Cardiff.

He said: “I knew that we were going to turn up and play well tonight. We knew that if our three lines played well that we would have the edge over them.

“On the flip side of that we came out an expended a lot of energy in the first period as we sought to get those goals. It was great to see that the guys built on their lead.

“In the second period we weathered the storm as best we could. Getting the powerplay goal going into the third period gave Cardiff a lot of life.

“But after the timeout the guys settled down and got their composure back. And then obviously our fourth goal was huge.”

Keefe was full of praise for his top line.

He said: “They are certainly competitors and they know how to win in this league. That is the difference.

“In the first period I was impressed with all three of our lines and how they performed.

“It is fatiguing the way that I am asking them to play, so when we have just the three lines it can be very taxing on the guys to defend as hard as I am asking them to defend.

“I am delighted that we held on to that game and won and the points are massive for us.”

Another superb performance by Jackson Whistle in goal for the Giants was also praised by Keefe. In the middle period Whistle was called upon 17 times to save shots from the Devils.

“I thought he was great. The shots that did come in on him in the first period he had the confidence to block.

“And for a time it did seem like he was swatting away at flies.

“Having a goalie who is strong in goal is important and it gives the group confidence.

“It was a great performance by Whis and it was also a great performance by the whole team.

“We need to get ourselves recovered and prepare to go again against Guildford tomorrow night.”

With both Kevin Raine and Sam Ruopp out of the came through injury and illness respectively, Keefe had to call upon Ciaran Long to step back into defence.

Keefe said: “He is a jack of all trades for us. It's great to have that ability to be able step in after Sam got sick this morning, he was happy to move back to defence.

“He didn't miss a beat for us and I thought he was very good for us back in defence.

“Mark Garside can to the same, and that adds a depth to our team, and we are able to sustain a day like today.”

Cardiff is always a hard place to come into and take points admitted Keefe.

“The mistakes that we did make came from fatigue. We have to manage that a little better but that's on us.

“We are talking about bigger things here. To get to bigger things and win the league we have to find consistency in our game.

“That means showing up not only today but also tomorrow.”